So, in a memoir published in the Netherlands, a Dutch artist named Jan Cremer claims that he saw Bob Dylan in drug rehab in 1966, during the time when he was believed by the world to be recovering from a motorcycle accident.

Well, I think it’s a common presumption that Dylan took advantage of whatever accident took place to get off of the lethal roller-coaster that he was then on. And that’s why he’s now a 67 year-old who played a gig last night at Viking Stadium, in Stavanger, Norway, versus being just a permanently young face on a t-shirt like Jimi Hendrix or James Dean. And thank the Good Lord for that. As to whether he went to some kind of rehab, I’m sure I don’t know, but if he did you have to give him and everyone involved kudos for keeping it completely discreet. (Actually, I always thought of Big Pink as being his rehab, albeit not one that was alcohol-free.)

One thing’s sure: the story raises the profile of Mr. Cremer’s memoir by many notches, which can’t hurt the book sales. I’m reminded of another memoir, by Simon Napier-Bell, in which he reported that he just happened to be sitting in front of the desk of CBS honcho Dick Katz when Katz loudly commanded Bob Dylan, through the phone line, to can his gospel music or else. A curious thing that Napier-Bell and Cremer have in common is that they had both apparently already written memoir-type books years before they got around to remembering their juicy Bob Dylan story. It is indeed admirable to have both the restraint and foresight to save something so relatively news-worthy for a later book, rather than putting it in your first. Remarkable, actually.

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